In 1913, the San Antonio-Fredericksburg and Northern
Railroad was built through the community of Grapetown, whose construction
also included a 900 footlong tunnel through the Big Divide. This is the only
railroad tunnel in Texas. In 1935, the railroad was discontinued, but about
1920, some prosperous citizens in Grapetown made an effort to have a depot
and post office closer to the center of the existing community. This was done
and the town was named Bankersmith after Temple D. Smith, president of the
first bank in Fredericksburg. It was located on Rudolph Habenicht land. A
store, dancehall, post office, lumberyard and warehouse were built, then
dismantled about 1927, but is still known as Bankersmith on the map.

Bergheim, whose name means "Home in the Hills,"
was founded in the 1900 by Andreas Engel. It is located ten miles NE of
Boerne in the SE corner of Kendall County. Bergheim was later in development
as a town than most in the county and has no railroad; but is was and is a
major trading station for the area with it's Engel Store and postoffice.

Small community on the East bank of Block Creek and the
old Comfort to Fredericksburg Rd, 2 1/2 miles North of farm Rd 473 and some 8
miles NE of Comfort in Western Kendall County. It was settled in part by
Freethinkers. A post office opened at Block Creek in 1884 and closed in 1895.
In 1890 the community had 15 residents. The Block creek School opened around
1900 and remained the focus of a common school district until 1949 when it
became part of the Comfort Independent School District. In 1913, the
Fredericksburg and Northern Railway established a flag stop in Block creek to
benefit the nearby Hillingdon Ranch. Two or three houses marked the community
on county highway maps in the late 1940s, but by the 1980s these were no
longer shown on maps of the area.

Located 1/2 mile South of FM 473 and 1 1/2 miles East of
Comfort. Idlewilde Lodge was built in 1902 of long leaf yellow pine. This
structure was first used as a Sanitarium by Dr.C.H.Wilkinson of Galveston.
The building became a Recorded Texas Historical landmarker in 1982 and is
also on the National Register of Historic Places. In 1906 the property was
sold to E. Hugo, who operated Camp Reliance here until 1912 when Robert Wilke
bought the land and adopted the name camp Good Times. This turn of the
century vernacular building then served as the lodge for Camp Idlewilde, a
girls summer camp operated by the YWCA for over 60 years. The camp later sold
to Marshall T. Steves in the 1980's and in 1992 to Connie and Hank Engel.

The official founding date of Comfort is September 3,
1854, when Ernest Altgelt completed his survey and laid out the 301 town
lots, which still form the basic community today. By the end of 1854, 50
families and 67 other men had settled in the community. Of the original 50
families, descendants of at least 40 still live in Comfort, many in the
original homes built by their pioneer forefathers. It is a very close knit
community. Most of comfort's early arrivals migrated from Germany because of
its revolution of 1848. They sought peace and comfort and thus the English
word "Comfort" was selected by the new settlers as their name for
the town. Comfort became a thriving center for trading and commerce,
education and "Freethinkers". It became the center for
the"Freethinking Philosophy" which was an antireligious movement
generated by religious oppression in Germany; another major reason for
immigration to Texas. It was to be about 50 years before a church was
established in Comfort. A matter of great pride from the beginning was
education of both men and women. Comfort was the county seat for Kerr County
before Kendall County was formed, and then it fell within the boundry line of
Kendall and lost it's county seat. Comfort was chosen for the site of the
"Treue der Union" monument. It is the common grave of 35 German
settlers, who died in the Nueces Battle of the Civil War in 1862, when they
were attempting to join Union Forces in this Confederate area. It is the only
known monument to the Union below the Mason-Dixon Line. Today, Comfort is
known for its preservation efforts and its Historic District. There are more
than 150 19th century structures which are still predominant in this German
town and Comfort residents continue to retain the early flavor and
philosphies of the community.. It is the second largest town in Kendall
County and is unincorporated.

The highway sign says Curry Creek, the map says Curry's
Creek and many oldtimers say that its Currie's Creek. Nothing is known of the
man it was named after and there is a legend that he drowned in the creek
bearing his name. The community, 3 miles South of Kendalia, was settled in
1850 when Judge William E. Jones established a sawmill along the creek. While
Boerne was still a small hamlet, Curry's Creek was florishing with a
population of 100 or more. Men who helped to shape Texas history lived here.
Judge Samuel B. Patton moved here in 1847 when the area was still in Blanco
County. He became its first County Judge in 1858. He is buried on his old
property and his grave site is a Recorded Texas Historical landmark. The
Lawhon brothers, Jesse and John, came with Judge Jones, who himself had a
colorful career in San Antonio. Jesse was overseer for the Judge and was
killed by Indians in 1855. John settled here, became a rancher and farmer and
his descendants are still in the area. Jesse L. McCrocklin was in the Battle
of San Jacinto and the Somervell Expedition and was given a large land grant
for his military service. Parson Daniel Rawls of Austin's "Old 300"
brought 50 slaves here and settled on the creek that bears his name. He built
the first cotton gin in the county and organized the Methodist Church in
Blanco County. Captain John Sansom, a famous Texas Ranger lived here. George
Wilkins Kendall, whom Kendall County is named after, lived here at one time.
Still standing is the house with a slot in the door for letters, which was
the Curry Creek Post Office, on land now owned by the Herrin family.

Was located about 10 miles South of Fredericksburg on the
San Antonio-Fredericksburg Road, which was the main thoroughfare for stock,
cattle and freight drives. (Please see Bankersmith history) It was settled in
1855 by German immigrants of the Meusebach group from Fredericksburg, which
was founded in 1846. This area was selected because of it's abundant wildlife
and cattle ranges. Most were not farmers but factory workers from the
industrialized areas of Germany, such as Hamburg and Berlin.. In 1860,
Friedrich Doebbler opened a grocery and dry goods store named Doebbler's Inn.
It was also the post office and a relay station for stagecoaches, with
stables and an inn which was located in his home. It became the central
gathering place for the Grapetown area. Some early names associated with
Grapetown are Hemphill, Doebbler, Honhenberger, Tatsch, Ebers, Rausch,
Enderlin and Hoffman. For 91 years Grapetown florished but now the schools,
stores and dance halls are all gone with just a few social gatherings and
reunions.

Near Block Creek, on the old San Antonio Rd, between
Fredericksburg and Comfort, was a 3500 acre ranch purchased by Alfred Giles,
noted architect. Alfred came to San Antonio from England, where he was born
at Hillingdon, near London. He began his architectural career as an
apprentice in England; he came to San Antonio in 1873 for his health at age
20. Employed by contractor, John Kampmann, he became a well-known architect
and worked on several known structures such as the Bexar County Courthouse
and the newer addition to the Kendall County Courthouse. On the ranch he
built a 1 1/2 to 2 story structure, with stucco portions with towering capped
chimneys reflecting an English influence Many out buildings include a
dog-trot log cabin dating to C1855. The ranch became Alfred Giles retreat and
remained in the Giles family after his death. His son Palmer lived on the
ranch for over 70 years before he died at the ranch in 1986 at age 91.

Located about 25 miles NE of Boerne, was surveyed and
plotted by Carl Gustav Vogel in 1883; however, the first records of Kendalia
were in 1852. It is not certain whether the town was named for George Wilkins
Kendall or for the county of Kendall. A plat was made of the town but it
never attained the promise of the survey for a "Mountain College",
a square, a park and a garden. Most proposed streets are now in pasture and
never materialized. George Elbel built a store in 1911 and a cotton gin was
built. The first merchant was J.J. Merchon, whose store housed the
postoffice. There was an octagon store but that has been replaced by the
current Kendalia Store and postoffice. Post Office records were transferred
from Curry's Creek Settlement to Kendallia in 1895. J.W. Lawhon built a rock
store before 1900 where everything imaginable was sold at now ridiculously
low prices. Record books of the store contain the names of most of the people
in the community. Dr. Herrin had a drugstore and after him, Dr. Putnam added
cold drinks. There was also a "Buck Horn Saloon." Three schools
were built in the area, There were two churches but now the Baptist Church is
gone and the Methodist Community Church remains in use and is a Texas
Historical Landmark. There are family cemeteries with such names as Jones,
Kneupper, Lawhon, Schmidt, Gerfers and Edges which reflect early pioneer
names. Kendalia today is a small community surrounded by ranches with an
active volunteer fire department, community center, library, store and post
office and a newly activated Dance Hall.

In 1847, Vincent Phillip and his family moved to a new
home on the Sabine River located about 8 miles East of Boerne. He erected a
large wooden cross on a high hill overlooking the valley as a landmark. This
was in thanksgiving for the many blessings received on their perilous trip
from the old country. The cross has been replaced several times and is now
made of concrete; erected by descendants of Vincent Phillip and family in
1928. Kreutzberg, which means "Cross Mountain" in German, once had
a schoolhouse and has a shooting club. Today, some new developing, with the
sale of old family lands is beginning.

Was formed in 1872, and named for the Linden trees that
grew along the Blanco River, being brought there from Pennsylvania. The old
Sisterdale-Lindendale Road was closed in 1961 since it had long been
abandoned as a county road. Land around the springs at the head of the Blanco
River, about 18 miles West of Blanco, was preempted by Valentine Gates from
the State of Texas in 1870. Gates was a horticulturist and nurseryman and his
life long interest was fruit trees.. One of his first projects after building
his house in 1865 was to plant his famous apple orchard, the first of its
kind in the Hill Country. He was the only nurseryman near Boerne for a number
of years and he propogated hundreds of apple, peach and pear trees in his
day. T.E Patton, grandson of Gates and brother to Captain Sam Patton, said
that one of the hardest jobs he had was to keep the deer and wild animals of
of the gardens and orchards. Even today, wildlife abounds in that area.
Springs used to run through the springhouse to keep the butter, milk and
vegetables cool. Persimmon and pecan trees still provide abundant yields and
large cypress trees provide constant shade for the house and yard. Old
Grandpa Gates wanted to build out in the woods away from noise. He got his
wish because even today, the current owner, Dr. Dan Peavy, is still a mile
away from neighbors. There used to be a school in the Lindendale area and
church services were held there. A teacher, Miss Mary Holesworth of England
taught in the late1890's and built the education up to the third best in the
country. She gave concerts on Saturday nights and people from Blanco came in
their wagons and buggies from the sparcely populated region. The last school
building is now a community center and 4-H Club meeting place.

On Malakopf Mountain, 1.5 miles, NE of Boerne, via FM 474
and Kennon Ranch Road, is a monument to Dr. Ferdinand Ludwig von Herff
(1820-1912). The son of a prominent German family and a veteran of the
Prussian War, physician Herff first came to Texas in 1847. By the 1860s he
had set up a practice in San Antonio, where he was an active civic leader.
His medical innovations made him a prominent physician in the Southwest. Dr.
Herff and his wife, Mathilda (1823-1910), owned a ranch at this site and
their interest in the area led to the development of Boerne. Local residents
and descendants, honored their many contributions with the monument on
Malakopf Mountain, a site favored by the Herffs.

Located off IH 10 at the Welfare exit, 7 miles N. of
Boerne and 10 miles S. of Comfort. The town was built up by Mr. Edwin Nelson,
who owned the propert. He built a small store, living quarters and a Gulf
filling station in the 1920s; then placed a sign at the entrance calling it
Nelson City. Edwin Nelson was a rancher and dairyman. The structure next
built was a dance hall in 1929. There were just gravel roads to the area at
that time, but nelson City was put on the map and is still on the Texas
Highway map, although there is no post office there.. The dance hall was open
during prohibition so no alchoholic beverages were allowed inside. That
wasn't a problem because bootleggers peddled moonshine outside the building
for 25 cents a shot.. This was also the time of the great Depression and
people didn't have the money for gasoline to get there. The dance hall
eventually failed. The building was sold to Edwin Houston, a colorful rancher
known for his large export business of animals to latin America. Houston started
a restaurant in the old dance hall building and named it Po-Po Cafe after the
great Mexican volcano, Popocatepetl. It changed hand several times, then in
1950, it was sold to Luther and Marie Burgon and a great restuarant was born;
well known to the San Antonio and Texas Hill Country area. In 1983 it was
sold to Jerry, Jenny and David Tilley and continues to operate as a popular
family restaurant, winning many Taste of the Town Awards in San Antonio. With
the addition of sound stages and covered outdoor areas, complete kitchen and
private party room, Po-Po is the famous place to go in Nelson City. Continue
down the country road and you come next to Welfare and then Waring, other
interesting places to visit.

The late 1840s was a period of prolific German settlement
of Texas because of the political unrest and german Revolution of 1848 Small
groups of well educated, city dwelling political refugees founded several
"Latin Colonies". These well educated intellectuals had never
farmed before and didn't know where to begin. Sisterdale, located 15 miles
North of Boerne, was one such community of intellectuals. Sisterdale was
originally known as Zink's Settlement for Nicholas Zink, an engineer who had
previously laid out the town of New Braunfels for Prince Solm. He saw and
fell in love with the valley of the Sister Creeks. Dr. Ernst Kapp was another
early settler who came in 1850 and established his famous Kapp Hydropathic
Clinic because of cures possible with the many natural mineral springs on his
property, which have dried up now. The place is called Badenthal which
translates into " natural spring valley." Badenthal is on the
National Register of Historic Places as is Ottmar von Behr's Homestead.
Ottmar von Behr, the second permanent settler in Sisterdale, built his log
cabin to the South of the Guadalupe River and his homestead contained the
first post office and the first library for the colony and the county. The
period of the Civil War ended the dominance of the Latin Colony settlers,
replaced by new German immigrants who were farmers and workers; your butcher
and baker and candlestick maker variety. Stores and schools and buildings
expanded with a Dance Hall and an Opera House. Sisterdale never became an
incorporated city, only a series of farms and was established as a township
in 1883, although it was one of the oldest German settlements in the county.

Started out as a stagecoach stop on the road between San
Antonio and Fredericksburg. At the time it was called Winsor and was on the
North bank of the Guadalupe River. Waring was created in 1888 following the
completion of the San Antonio and Aransas Pass Railroad along the South side
of the Guadalupe. The town was laid out into 50 city blocks by E.M. Burr and
was named after R.P.M. Waringford. The name was officially changed to Waring
in 1891. Waring prospered in it's early days with two daily connections to
San Antonio and Highway #9 going through to Fredericksburg. Waring provided
warehousing, shipping and shopping services and had a post office, general
store, school, meat markets, dance hall and other services. The decline of
Waring came with the completion of the railroad to Fredericksburg bypassing
Waring in 1913. Then came the new roads bypassing the town, the automobile,
the Great Depression, and discontinuance of the railroad after WWII. Herman
Rust came to Waring in 1900 and became the leading blacksmith in the area for
over 50 years. He added a large hardware store, built a garage and a gas
station. He was the leading Case Machinery Agent for a large territory. This
developed into R&F Automotive & Welding, Inc. Today, people are
discovering that Waring is a great place to live in the Texas Hill Country
and some of the old families are still in residence.

An intermittent stream that rises in Kendall County and
flows east northeast about 8 miles to the Guadalupe River. The stream
received its name when a surveyor with George Erath discovered a wasp nest
and mistook it for a beehive. A small community of Wasp Creek settled in the
area in the mid-1800's that included the Oscar Bergmanns, William Magers
family and Behr/Herbst families.

The name of Welfare, located between Boerne and Comfort,
possibly comes from the German word Wohlfahrt, meaning "pleasant
trip." In 1846, the town was known as Bon Ton but was changed when the
railroad came through from San Antonio to Kerrville. Like Waring, much of
Welfare's history involves transportation routes and the railroad. Mail was
delivered first by bicycle, then by stagecoach twice weekly and then by the
railroad. There used to be a depot and water tank, saloon, hotel and cotton
gin. The train picked up mail, milk cans, cattle, chickens and produce. The
railroad tracks were laid in 1886, the postoffice began in 1889 and the
Welfare store in 1890. Mr. Percy Laas worked in the post office for 53 years
and the Welfare store for 55 years. In 1960, the railroad tracks were removed
and the new interstate highway #10 bypassed Welfare. Everything is now gone
of the by-gone era. Old family names of Welfare are Zink, Laas, Bartel,
Beseler, Magers, Klemstein and Pfeiffer.